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BAA to defy government in Heathrow runway move

BAA’s new owners are likely to defy the government and build a new runway at Heathrow before the one planned at Stansted, according to British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh.

A consortium led by Spanish group Ferrovial bought BAA for £10.3 billion earlier this year. Before the deal, BAA had thrown its weight behind a government plan to build the first new runway in southeast England at Stansted, Essex.

But Walsh said he expected the Ferrovial consortium to take “a more pragmatic approach”. He added: “I have held that view (that Heathrow would now come before Stansted) since the takeover. In simple terms, you can make a much stronger business argument to do Heathrow first.”

This week BA called for the Office of Fair Trading, which is examining the ownership of airports, to refer BAA to the Competition Commission for a full investigation. BAA owns all three big London airports,